Time Machine

Homebrew - Stoli Chocolate Porter

Over Christmas I decided to make a chocolate porter that used some fancy chocolate I had won at work. In the spirit of homebrewing I drunkenly made a recipe based on what left over hops I had, the chocolate I had won and googling other people that had tried chucking real chocolate into beer. I got the best ideas from thesetwo posts. I also tried to max out my 3 gallon mash tun with 5.5 lbs of grain. The name came from my brother's dog who just had nose surgery.

Ingredients

Partial mash with 5.5 lb grain and 5 lb LME.

3 lbs - 2 row

1 lbs - Flaked Wheat

1 lbs - Chocolate Wheat

0.5 lbs - Caramel Wheat

5 lbs - Wheat LME

3.5 oz - Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa)

1.0oz - Galena Pellet Hops (Bittering)

0.25 oz - Kent Golding Pellet Hops (Finishing)

0.75 oz - Fuggle Pellet Hops (Aroma)

White Labs English Ale WLP002

Method

Heat 1 quart of water per pound of grain to 165. (5.2 liters)

Add all the grains to the mash tun and add the water. Make sure the temperature does not drop below 152. Mash for 60 minutes, stir half way through.

Heat 1.3 quarts of water per pound of grain to 175. (6.75 liters)

Drain the wort slowly and sparge with the 175 degree water. Try to keep some water above the grain bed.

Bring wort to the boil.

Once boiling add any other fermentables (like malt extract).

Bring back to the boil.

0 Add bittering hops. (Galena)

Boil for 30 minutes.

30 Add flavoring hops. (Fuggle)

Boil for 15 minutes.

45 Add a tea spoon of Irish moss.

Boil for 3 minutes.

48 Add 3.5 oz of chopped dark chocolate.

Boil for 2 minutes.

50 Put the wort chiller into the boil (to santize).

Boil for 5 minutes.

55 Add finishing hops. (Kent Golding)

Boil for 5 minutes.

60 Cool wort to 65 degrees and pour through a strainer into a fermenting bucket.

Top up the bucket, take a hydrometer reading, add the yeast and ferment for 3 weeks.

After adding the 165 degree water to the grain, the temperature dropped to 156 degrees. This was in the target range I wanted for the first time. However after 30 minutes (time to stir) the temperature had dropped to 148 which was the bottom of the target range. I added 0.5 quarts (0.5 liters) of near boiling water from an electric kettle. This raised the temperature back up to 154 degrees.

Because the last few beers I brewed in the winter had trouble with carbonation I decided to condition this one indoors at around 70 degrees. I also left it an extra week before trying one because we were on vacation. The pour looked great with plenty of carbonation and a hefty head. The head retention was excellent, far better than recent batches. I guess keeping them at 70 degrees was the correct move. I think I will start keeping all beer indoors now, the garage is either too hot or too cold. Either way keeping the temperature constant has to be a good idea.

There is definitely a chocolatey aroma but it is not overpowering. It feels very smooth in the mouth with lots of very tiny bubbles. It is quite malty at the start but turns bitter in the after taste. The bitterness is not overpowering and is along the lines of what I want in a porter. There is almost no hint of the homebrew taste that I have come to hate. As I have been thinking for a while, temperature control during fermentation and conditioning may be the reason for those off flavors (all the more reason to start kegging). I was surprised that most of the chocolate came across in the smell rather than the taste.

This was a great experiment and I'm going to say my best beer I have brewed. I love the combination of making my own recipe and the final product turning out great. Drinking this just makes me want to brew more.